US launches 2 spy geo-satellites to track ‘nefarious capability’ of other nations

The US Air Force has successfully orbited two geosynchronous satellites to monitor all other space devices operating on the same strategic orbit, because of the “nefarious capability” other nations might try to place up there, an American general said.

Two Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP)
satellites will maneuver above and below a 35,970 kilometer
geosynchronous orbit, where practically all modern massive
communication satellites are stationed, to take a closer look and
make “portraits” of every object currently occupying a position
there.

The 63-meter-tall Delta IV rocket (Medium+ configuration, two
solid fuel rocket boosters), built by the Lockheed Martin/Boeing
joint venture United Launch Alliance, with two GSSAP satellites
and a small ANGELS program experimental satellite, blasted off at
7:28 PM EDT from Patrick Air Force Base at Cape Canaveral,
Florida.

Neither the costs, nor technical details of the GSSAP program
have so far been released.

Originally, the launch was due to take place July 23. But after a
technical issue with ground support equipment, and then three
delays due to poor weather conditions, the booster blast off took
place from Launch Complex 37 on Monday.

“This neighborhood watch twosome will help protect our
previous assets in geo, plus they will be on the lookout for
nefarious capability other nations may try to place in that
critical orbital regime,” the head of US Air Force Space
Command, General William Shelton, told reporters. “We will
learn a great deal about the geo traffic with the images produced
from these two satellites.”

Both satellites could easily change their orbit position so that
operators on the ground could have “the best possible vantage
point for collecting images when required,” Shelton said,
“to improve space situational awareness.”

“A picture is worth a thousand inferences because we can see
literally what that [foreign] satellite looks like, and you can
effectively reverse-engineer and understand what the capabilities
are... to a much greater extent than you can today,” Shelton
said.

Another task for GSSAP satellites will be tracking space junk.
The US Air Force currently tracks about 23,000 pieces of space
junk as small as 10 centimeters in diameter, Reuters reported.

Shelton confirmed to reporters that a backup set of two
satellites will be delivered to orbit in 2016.

Designed by Orbital Sciences, the GSSAP project was effectively
top secret until February, when Shelton mentioned it in a speech
along with other space programs.

The GSSAP program “will bolster our ability to discern when
adversaries attempt to avoid detection and to discover
capabilities they may have which might be harmful to our critical
assets at these higher altitudes," Shelton said in the
speech.

The GSSAP is part of the US’s future Space Based Space
Surveillance (SBSS) system that will be formed by a whole
constellation of satellites to enable the US to track down space
objects in various orbits around the planet.

Shelton made no secret that GSSAP was aimed at possible space
conflicts, when some nation might try to shoot down or disable
American military satellites that form the backbone of US
intelligence, missile targeting and communication capabilities.

“There are myriad counter-space threats that we are seeing on
the near horizon,” he said, promising to “adjust our
spacecraft constellations to survive in a very different
environment from what we've had in the past.”

The GSSAP satellites “could certainly be considered
offensive,” Defense News reported Marco Caceres, an analyst
with the Teal Group, as saying. “Obviously, the US Air Force
is primarily thinking of it as defensive or simply from a
maintenance and repair standpoint. But if you have the ability to
get close enough to other satellites to observe or repair or
refuel, then sure, you could probably take them out.”

But Defense News reported Shelton as saying: “We do have an
inherent right to safely maneuver around and monitor potentially
threatening satellites.”